


New Skin

by Lindira



Series: Never Changes [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Fallout (Video Games)
Genre: 69 (Sex Position), Alternate Universe - Fallout, Body Image, M/M, Oral Sex, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-11-18
Packaged: 2018-05-02 07:02:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5238914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lindira/pseuds/Lindira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After waking up in the Wasteland and escaping from the vault, Aeric struggles to accept his human body. Dorian does his best to reassure him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Skin

**Author's Note:**

> This is a direct sequel to "Briar Rose", with small references to "Settling In", "Sound of the Unlocking", and "Ma'nehn". (It's not necessary to read the latter three stories to read this story, however.)

Aeric sat in sickly grass, staring out at the warm sunlight that glittered over the ripples in the pond before him. The waters were now free of the man-sized crab creature they stumbled upon there. Thanks to a few lucky shots in the creature's face, he and Dorian had had their first substantial meal since leaving the vault. Even still, Aeric's eyes darted around every now and then to watch for movement, not confident that some other giant mutant wasn't going to leap out to devour them.

The past two days had been a flurry of fear and struggle, narrowly escaping the enormous insects scattered across the Wasteland. The pond and its nearby copse of withered trees provided refuge, after the anxiety-filled, sleepless days and nights. Their stomachs full of questionable crab meat, they found themselves able to relax for the first time since arriving in this new world.

"Now that we have a little time to breathe," Dorian was saying, sitting down beside him, "how about we give ourselves a shave, hm? I know that beard has been giving you some trouble." He ran a hand over his own chin, covered with thick hair. "Maker, these things on our faces might make even Blackwall envious. Anyway, a shave? I'll do you first?"

Aeric nodded, watching as Dorian drew their dagger and dipped it into the water. With a gentle hand, Dorian brought more water up from the pond over and over to wet Aeric's beard thoroughly.

"Hold still now." Dorian ran the blade of their dagger in careful motions over Aeric's face. The sensation was strange, the slight tug on his beard uncomfortable and foreign.

"We'll find your face under this thing in no time, _amatus_ ," Dorian joked, rinsing the blade. "Are you certain you wouldn't like to have a short beard?" Dorian swiped the dagger in short, deft movements, scraping away the hair from Aeric's face. "I think you'd look rather dashing in a goatee. Or you could try a mustache like mine." He paused. "Well, after I've had my turn, that is. I've had quite enough of this monstrosity that's grown while we've been sleeping."

Aeric's gaze ran over Dorian's face, the taller man's features mostly hidden by the beard. Dorian was still recognizable, though, his arched nose and inquisitive gray eyes just as they had ever been in Thedas. Not so, with Aeric.

He glanced at their reflection in the surface of the water, still for a moment with a lack of wind. Olive green _vallaslin_ that he could remember receiving, with terrible, silent pain as the Keeper's needle pierced his eyelids, his lower lip, his throat. Now gone. Smooth skin, always hairless. No longer so. Pointed ears, marking him as an elf, a proud member of the Dalish, the last of the elvhen. _Never again shall we submit_. What was he now, with ears rounded?

 _Why are you reading so much about the shems?_ His clanmates had asked him time and again. _Do you want to be a human so much? You're barely even Dalish. The only things that make you an elf now are your ears…_

"I like your ears," Dorian said softly. Aeric started a little, feeling as if his love had somehow read his thoughts, until he realized he was touching his ears again. With a sigh, Dorian lowered the dagger and bowed his head so that it rested against Aeric's forehead. "I cannot imagine how difficult this must be for you. But I do like your ears, for what it's worth. And the new hair. And the plainness of your face. Especially now that I can see it's still essentially the same beneath the beard."

Aeric closed his eyes, his breath catching in his chest.

Dorian's free hand curled in Aeric's hair, long and wavy after several months - a year, perhaps? - of captivity. There was a slight tremble in his touch. "Please say something, _amatus_. You've uttered perhaps a handful of sentences since we escaped from that place the other day." Aeric opened his eyes to see Dorian's face close to his, sad and pleading. "This world is hopeless enough without all the silence. You are all that is familiar to me, Aeric. I _need_ to hear you speak to me." Dorian's voice began to crack as he continued. "You… You haven't even called me by that name you gave me."

" _Ma'nehn_ ," Aeric said, his voice hoarse from disuse.

Dorian gave a tiny smile. "That's the one."

Aeric shook his head. "It doesn't mean anything."

Dorian's smile fell instantly into a frown. "Of course it does. I translated it myself, you remember. It means-"

"It doesn't mean anything here," Aeric said, shaking his head again. "Not in reality. Elves aren't real, Dorian. Therefore, the elvhen language isn't real either. The word is meaningless."

"Meaningless?" Dorian echoed, his eyes flashing. He splashed the dagger into the water again then raised it to Aeric's face, the blade swiping away more of Aeric's beard in quick, angry motions. "Was it meaningless, saying it to me the first time you asked me to stay in your room? Was it meaningless when you said it to me the first time you said you loved me, in the bloody Emerald Graves?" The dagger made short work of the rest of the facial hair, but the skin felt raw underneath. Aeric was certain the blade had nicked him. "I hadn't realized," Dorian went on, his voice rising, "that the months of work I did, poring over those damned books in elvish, was so _meaningless_ , Aeric! _Kaffas!_ If I had known the word was _meaningless_ , I wouldn't have fucking bothered!"

Aeric's gaze did not falter from Dorian's, as much as his words hurt with aching fondness for the memories. "You know what I mean."

His work finished, Dorian threw the dagger into the sickly, yellowed grass at their feet. "Oh, I do know. Just as I'm fairly certain Tevinter isn't a real country as much as elves aren't a real people. So Tevene isn't a real language either. Would you like me to stop calling you ' _amatus_ '?"

Aeric paused. "Of course not."

"It means something to you, doesn't it?" Dorian snapped. "But for all we know, ' _amatus_ ' is just as 'meaningless' as your word for me." He got to his feet and stepped away from the water, pacing along the bank. When he finally looked back at Aeric, Dorian glared, hiding behind his anger as he often did. "Do you have any idea how much your word means to me? Do you have the faintest idea how it felt to know I bring you joy? I don't even fully understand it myself, but…" Aeric saw Dorian swallow hard. He took a moment, shaking his head. "You cannot stop calling me that word. And I absolutely forbid you from shutting me out. I'll go insane otherwise."

"I'm sorry, Dorian." After a pause, Aeric tried to give a little smile. " _Ma'nehn_."

Dorian stared at him for a moment before his face softened. He returned Aeric's smile with a tiny, reluctant one of his own. "Stop making that face. You'll give yourself a conniption forcing yourself like that." He stepped back to the water's edge and picked up the dagger from the grass. "Now watch for mutant beasts while I have a turn, would you? If I get devoured by a giant shellfish monster, I'm holding you responsible."

Aeric chuckled. A grin instantly appeared on Dorian's face, a triumphant glint in his eyes.

As Dorian shaved, peering over at his reflection in the water, Aeric watched the area for creatures or other people, both of which were equally deadly and unpredictable in this world. Every so often, he allowed himself a glance at Dorian, who was still scraping away his overgrown beard. After some time, the blade revealed the face Aeric so loved, complete with a trademark mustache.

"Maker, that takes considerably longer without magic," Dorian muttered when he finally looked up. He felt his face a little, stopping at the edges of the mustache, more even than they had been in Thedas. "I'll miss the curl, but it'll be rather more manageable this way."

"Gorgeous as ever," Aeric told him without the least bit of exaggeration.

Dorian smirked. "Naturally."

Aeric looked away, his hands going once more to his ears without thinking. He suddenly felt woefully inadequate.

Getting back to his feet, Dorian closed the space between them. " _Amatus_ …" he said gently. "You may be different, but you are still as handsome as ever."

"I feel wrong," Aeric muttered. "I have a picture in my head of what I should look like, but every time I look at myself, it's not right. It seems a foolish thing to dwell upon, given that we're half-starved in a strange land. But even still…" He shrugged. "Even still, I feel… ugly."

Dorian kissed him then, their newly revealed skin tingling with sensation. With a sudden urgency, Aeric partook of Dorian's lips eagerly, the feeling heady and intoxicating. Their mouths moved in tandem, closing around the caresses of their tongues against one another. Dorian let out a soft moan, a deep rumble that stirred a different kind of hunger within Aeric, a need to feel more.

Their lips parted, just for a moment. "Definitely not ugly, Aeric," Dorian breathed. His hands clenched around handfuls of  Aeric's jumpsuit. " _Fasta vass_ , I want you so badly. I feel as if I haven't made love to you in ages."

Aeric blinked at him in surprise, realizing. "Actually, you never have."

Dorian had resumed his kissing, peppering the smooth skin of Aeric's cheeks with quick brushes of his lips. "What… nonsense… is that now?"

"We've never had sex," Aeric said, caught between the haze of his desire and the shock of his realization. "We've never even kissed before now. Everything was in our heads. As far as we know, we'd never even met before you found me in the vault a couple days ago."

Dorian raised his head and stared at him for a moment before throwing back his head with a bark of a laugh. "Well! That simply won't do at all! No wonder I'm about ready to rip that hideous blue jumpsuit off of you. If they weren't your only set of clothing, I'd have done so already. This must be rectified immediately." He paused and raised an eyebrow at Aeric. "Unless you have any objections?"

Aeric felt half-crazed with the desire to feel Dorian against him, but the niggling discomfort he felt with his body made him hesitate.

With a single finger, Dorian lifted Aeric's chin so their eyes met once more. "You are magnificent, as you always have been." Dorian kissed him again, long and lingering. "Even if you do not believe it yourself, I'll spend all my days trying my damnedest to convince you."

A slow smile crept across Aeric's face. It did not fully touch his lips, but he could see that Dorian knew it was there. "I like the sound of that," he whispered.

Dorian was upon him then, his hands going at once to the zipper at the front of Aeric's jumpsuit. His hands slipped underneath as soon as it was open, his mouth coming down on the sensitive skin at the base of Aeric's neck. Aeric gasped, muscles seizing at the cascade of sensation. His hands grappled at Dorian's back, clenching, unclenching. His skin sang beneath Dorian's touch, wanting more. Needing it. How long had it been since he had been touched like this? Had he ever been? It was like feeling for the first time, a world of tingling touches and sharp bites and soft caresses.

Aeric's hands fumbled at Dorian's jumpsuit, so much lust and wanting making him uncharacteristically clumsy. His hands pushed aside the rough cloth, roaming, seeking out as much skin as he could touch. When his fingertips scraped across Dorian's ass, nails skirting across supple flesh, Dorian moaned low in his throat. Their hips rocked against each other, their breaths turning ragged at the delicious and agonizing friction between them.

With a pulling of sleeves and a shrugging of shoulder, the jumpsuits were almost completely off of them, pooling in tangles of cloth just above the tops of their boots. His mouth trailing wet kisses across Aeric's skin, Dorian moved downwards, hands roaming every inch of Aeric's body within his reach. Dorian took a moment to nuzzle the short curls on Aeric's chest, breathing in as if to take in his very essence. "Utterly gorgeous," he growled, a sound that made Aeric shudder down through his core. He slipped his tongue in a lingering swipe over one pert nipple, then the other, making Aeric tense and sigh. "The hair here… exquisite. As if you've decorated yourself in strands of silk." He scattered his kisses down Aeric's ribs. "Maker, the feel of you…"

Too slow, too slow. Aeric made a low, grumbling noise deep in his throat, but made no move to stop Dorian in his focused ministrations. The fingers of one hand buried themselves in Dorian's hair, the other hand tracing muscles clothed in copper skin, Aeric relearning as much as he could. Real hands upon real skin, no longer the simulated imaginings in his mind. Aeric watched Dorian drink him in, worshipping his body with tongue and lips and hands, releasing heavy breaths that warmed Aeric with their heat and desire. For the first time, Aeric felt that perhaps this body was one worth having. "More, Dorian…" he begged in a whisper. "Please _, ma'nehn_ , please…I need to feel you…"

Dorian let out a long sigh that caught in his throat, as he looked up at Aeric with wild eyes. " _Kaffas_ ," Dorian cursed with a huff. "I'm barely reining myself in. Do you know what your begging does to me?"

Aeric gave a small smile. A miracle, in this desolate place, that Dorian could draw it out of him. "I do."

Moving still lower, Dorian answered with a grin and a nip at the sensitive flesh where Aeric's pelvis met his right leg. Aeric jumped a little, tickling tingles running through him in a rush. As Dorian reached the thick curls below, Aeric turned self-conscious once more, hating his newfound hair. Dorian was undeterred, however, burying his face in the hollow between Aeric's thighs. "Oh, Maker, you smell the same," Dorian groaned. "How is that possible?"

He took Aeric into his mouth then, descending upon him with a look of such wanton hunger that Aeric moaned from the mere sight of him. As Dorian's mouth closed around him, hot and wet, Aeric's hands clenched in the yellowed grass, grabbing fistfuls as he let out another long and heavy moan. "Fuck," Aeric grunted, "your mouth feels incredible."

Dorian let out a pleased hum, the vibrations sending shivers through Aeric's flesh, making him shudder. Tongue circling, pressing, caressing. Skin crying out for more. More pressure, more wetness, more friction, more touch. One of Aeric's hands returned to Dorian's hair, tangling within it, urging him gently on. "Yes… Oh, Dorian, yes…"

With his eyes blown wide with pleasure and lust, Aeric looked down to see that Dorian had taken himself into his own hand, working himself with the same rhythm as his mouth on Aeric. His lover's swelling erection already so slick with pre-cum, his face full of such urgency, it was clear to see how desperately Dorian wanted him.

"Wait," Aeric groaned with some reluctance. "Come here. This… this shouldn't be about just me."

Dorian released Aeric with a wet pop and raised a quizzical eyebrow. "In case you haven't noticed, we don't have any oils or… much of anything, really."

Aeric shook his head then gestured with it upwards. "Turn around and get on top."

"Oh, I like where this is going," Dorian said as he did as he was told, coming around to kneel with his legs on either side of Aeric's head.

With an eager, rumbling hum, Aeric drew Dorian down towards him, until he was on his hands and knees above Aeric. He stretched to reach Dorian's stomach, teasing with kisses and swipes of his tongue as he worked his way up to Dorian's hard length. Dorian, meanwhile, smiled warmly at him upside down before lowering his mouth once more upon Aeric. With another groan, Aeric let his mouth travel past Dorian's waist, lingering for a moment to lick in long strokes over Dorian's balls. Dorian moaned low in his throat, sending another wave of shivers over Aeric's skin.

Not wanting to tease Dorian any longer, knowing he craved touch and warmth and release as much as Aeric did, Aeric worked his way toward the tip of Dorian's erection and claimed it with his mouth. Dorian's hips bucked slightly, an unintelligible word escaping from his busy mouth. Aeric swirled his tongue over the head, relishing the hitch in Dorian's breath, the pause in the movement upon him.

Muffled moans filled the air. The devastated world fell away as Aeric and Dorian sucked and supped upon each other's flesh with greedy abandon. The musky scent of Dorian's arousal filled Aeric, and as he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine themselves back in Thedas, making love just like this in their tent in the middle of the Exalted Plains. With one hand on the base of Dorian's length, Aeric brought the other hand up around his waist to the roundness of Dorian's ass. Aeric raked his fingers over it before pressing him downward, driving him deeper into his mouth. Dorian released him for a moment to let out a breathless cry. "Fuck," he gasped. "Ahh… _amatus_ …"

The knowledge that he could still make Dorian feel this way, the hardness of Dorian's unbridled arousal in his mouth… these were almost as intoxicating to Aeric as the wet warmth around his own length. Pressure pooled within him, building like a boiler that would surely burst at any moment. Soon, there was little else. Nothing but chasing the release of that pressure with gasping cries and urgent moans. Nothing but love for the man above him and the ardent desire to give him the same end to this starvation of touch.

Aeric's muscles seized as he came, and his mouth left Dorian for a moment to let out a final groaning shout. "Oh gods, oh gods… Dorian!" he cried, feeling himself drawn tight, his eyes unseeing with the intensity of pleasure that poured over him in a rush.

As he came down from his orgasm, he smiled down at Dorian who was gazing at him upside down with open adoration. Warmth blossoming in his chest, Aeric's smile widened, and he flipped Dorian smoothly onto his back. As he centered himself between Dorian's knees, just over the jumpsuit still tangled around his legs, Aeric caught the other man's eye. "Ready?" Aeric asked.

"Fuck yes," Dorian said, his voice still husky with lust. "Please, Aeric, I was so close. Let me feel that glorious mouth of yours."

Aeric was upon him then, his mouth enveloping Dorian as far as he could take him. Dorian let out a ragged breath, his fists clenching in the grass. In a slow rhythm, Aeric bobbed up and down over him, one hand roaming to stroke his thigh and cup his ass. Dorian was gorgeous - head thrown back, eyes closed, lips parted, face flushed. "Ahh _, kaffas_ , you feel amazing," he murmured in amongst the string of soft moans escaping with each ragged breath. "Please… _amatus_ …" His knees began to tremble as he approached completion.

Stillness in the air as Dorian grew silent. Tension, anticipation just before his climax. Aeric heard the breath drawn then released like a bow, a wordless cry bursting out of Dorian as hot ribbons filled Aeric's mouth. He swallowed it down, slowing when Dorian seemed sated and boneless. Aeric let Dorian slip from his mouth, then slid up to lie beside him. He lay his head in the crook of Dorian's arm, sighing comfortably as he drew close to his lover's still flushed body.

Dorian smiled, bending to give Aeric a lingering kiss. When their lips parted, he brushed strands of hair from Aeric's temple affectionately. "You know," he murmured with a light chuckle. "It occurs to me that if some monstrous creature appears, we'll be naked and tripping over ourselves with our jumpsuits around our ankles. Quite a spectacle that would be."

"I doubt the giant roaches will mind," Aeric replied with a yawn. "I want to stay like this, at least for a little while. I like the feel of you."

Dorian nodded, giving him another soft smile. "You do fit rather nicely there."

Aeric looked down at their bodies, at the dark hair on both of them. It still looked odd, foreign. "It feels the same," he said softly. "Being with you. Even if I'm different."

Arms tightening around Aeric, Dorian pressed a kiss onto his forehead. "You are stunning, _amatus_. Though I can see you will still require some convincing."

"For a while yet," Aeric said, some of the melancholy returning even despite the slight smile on his face. "But I'll get used to it eventually. I'm still me, regardless. I'll just… need reminding every now and then."

"Anytime," Dorian said, kissing him again. "And you see? You're beginning to sound like your old, irrepressible self again."

Aeric chuckled. "You bring it out in me, _ma'nehn_."

They lay in the deadened grass together for a time, basking in the simple joys of full bellies, warm hearts, and the feel of each other's touch. As they stared up at the clouds and the sky in its multitude of colors in the setting sun, the world didn't feel so strange, if only for a moment. With his body pressed against Dorian's, Aeric still felt keenly that this body did not belong to him. Not yet. But it was the one he had, the one he was given. And if it meant he could still have moments with Dorian, moments like this, Aeric was determined to claim this body and make it his. One day.


End file.
